Abstract: A support material for a painting comprises a substrate, e.g. of paper or card, having on regions thereof a removable masking material to provide pictorial content and to define non-masked regions of substrate which provide a surface for receiving and retaining paint, wherein the masking material is provided on the substrate in the form of a printed layer, applied for instance by screen printing. The preferred masking material is applied as a latex-based fluid and is removable from the substrate by an eraser after application of a water-based paint wash to the entire substrate surface. Optionally the subsequently unmasked regions can be painted to provide additional pictorial detail.